Reigning Geelong & District Netball League premiers East Geelong looks like being one of the teams to beat again after a hard-fought three-goal win against Belmont on Saturday.
The Eagles overcame the loss of star defender Stephanie Boyce with an early injury to hold off the Lions in a classic encounter.
Sarah Perrott and Madeline Solly picked up the workload in defence to guide the Lions to a 47 to 43 win.
Coach Justine Radford was pleased with her team’s efforts.
“I think the composure is what pleased me most about the win,” she said.
“We went from 11 goals up to only three goals up in a relatively short amount of time and then managed to hold that for a fair amount of time towards the end. And composure is something that we work on every week and we know how important that is and not being rattled by the opposition.
“And just kind of holding strong when that momentum did swing towards Belmont, we had some uncharacteristic errors in our attack and in the second half which is a little bit unusual for us. But again it’s OK to have games like that. We’re only four rounds in.”
Radford was full of praise for 15-year-old midcourter Georgie Willson.
“Georgie Willson is someone that really did a great job yesterday,” she said.
“She’s only 15 years old, coming into A Grade and playing against players like Molly Gribble. I think she did an outstanding job. You wouldn’t have known that she was 15. She didn’t look rattled. She just goes out there and does her job.”
Despite being reigning premiers, Radford said consecutive flags was not at the forefront of her mind.
“I can only speak on behalf of me, but I’m pretty sure the girls are the same,” she said.
“Last year was last year. So we don’t really focus on what happened last year. They’ve had their chance to celebrate that and they did that for quite a long time after the season ended. But it’s a new season and we just go game by game.
“So we don’t have any focus on what’s going to happen down the end of the season. It’s all about next week for us at the moment.”
The Eagles meet Bell Post Hill at home this weekend.
The Panthers have won two games, but have been well beaten by Belmont and Thomson, which are both expected to be there at the business end.
“Bell Post Hill have recruited really well in the off season and I’ve been taking a note of their scores and they’ve got some really great players that they’ve brought into the team and injected into that A Grade side to help develop some of their younger players as well,” Radford said.
“So we expect them to be physical and great opposition and it’ll be a really good opportunity for us to also try some more combinations and to see how we’re sitting.”
CORIO defeated North Geelong 47 to 13 with Rebecca Kenny dominant at wing defence and Abbey Hobbs starring at wing attack. Defender Jorja Pendlebury was excellent for North Geelong.
THOMSON stayed unbeaten with a 72 to 22 win against Bell Post Hill. Bree Caldwell was best with 54 goals with wing defence Ebony Stiles good for the Panthers.
BANNOCKBURN got the better of Geelong West 51 to 38 with the versatile Georgia Connors putting in a decent shift in attack. Taleea Drever was the Giants’ best at wing defence.
ADELAIDE Annand was best on court at goal defence for Inverleigh in a 52 to 30 win against Werribee Centrals.
DEFENDER Rhiannon Williams starred for Winchelsea in a 52 to 35 win against Anakie.
